Scanning Microfiche

Microfiche Scanning - Find What You Need Fast

Finding information about topics has become easier and easier over time thanks to technologies like search engines. However, there is also a technology that is being implemented in many libraries and archives that is keeping them relevant as search information providers as well. That technology is microfiche scanning.

If you have ever done research in a library then you have probably used microfiche in some capacity. It is a very useful storage medium for libraries because it allows them to store thousands of pages of content on small pieces of film that takes up little room in the building. They can archive newspapers, magazines and other periodicals without having to store all the physical copies of the publications. Without microfiche, most libraries would not be able to present as much information as they do.

But, microfiche had its flaws as well. It would become damaged or lost. And, at times, the microfiche was hard to locate. Then the user would have to go through reams of film to find one article that may or may not be relevant to what they were needing.

Microfiche scanning has changed all that. With microfiche scanning, the magazines, newspapers and other periodicals can be scanned into a computer rather than to film. As the information is being scanned into the computer, a piece of software called optical character recognition, or OCR is converting the printable text into computer text. Now, the text in the document is becoming searchable in the process.

With this process, the searcher can look for text within the body of the content rather than just searching in titles and author names. It makes for a much more complete search, and make finding data and information much faster and easier for the person doing research.